Prime minister on two-day visit to Assam

Jorhat (Assam), Aug 25 (IANS) Prime Minister Manmohan Singh arrives in Assam Monday on a two-day visit amid hopes that he will address some of the state’s major issues like insurgency and influx of Bangladeshi migrants.The prime minister, who is a Rajya Sabha MP from Assam, arrives Monday midday in the eastern tea growing town of Jorhat, about 310 km from Assam’s main city of Guwahati, where he is scheduled to lay the foundation stone of a medical college.

Manmohan Singh will also inaugurate hospitals on wheels (mobile medical units) for 17 districts and then address a public rally in Jorhat. He is also scheduled to meet a group of Satradhikars or Vaishnavite monastic heads of Majuli, South Asia’s largest river island, in Jorhat.

The prime minister then leaves for the central Assam town of Nagaon where he is scheduled to address another public rally Monday afternoon before staying overnight in Guwahati.

The prime minister is expected to address a meeting of the Assam council of ministers Monday night at the Raj Bhawan.

On Tuesday, the prime minister will address students and faculty members of the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) in Guwahati, before leaving for the western town of Kokrajhar, about 250 km from Guwahati.

“The prime minister will lay the foundation stone of the Bodoland University, a planetarium, and a science museum-cum children park in Kokrajhar,” said Hagrama Mahilary, chief of the Bodoland Territorial Council.